Casinos and other forms of gaming comprise a growing multi-billion dollar industry both domestically and abroad, with electronic and microprocessor based gaming machines being more popular than ever. In a typical electronic gaming machine, such as a slot machine, video poker machine, video keno machine or the like, a game play is initiated through a player wager of money or credit, whereupon the gaming machine determines a game outcome, presents the game outcome to the player and then potentially dispenses an award of some type, including a monetary award, depending upon the game outcome. Many additional gaming machine components, features and programs have been made possible in recent years through this proliferation of electronic gaming machines, including those involving linked progressive jackpots, player tracking and loyalty points programs, and various forms of cashless gaming, among other items. Many of these added components, features and programs can involve the implementation of various back-end and/or networked systems, including more hardware and software elements, as is generally known.
Electronic and microprocessor based gaming machines themselves can include various hardware and software components to provide a wide variety of game types and game playing capabilities, with such hardware and software components being generally well known in the art. A typical electronic gaming machine will have master gaming controller (“MGC”), which includes a central processing unit (“CPU”), that controls various combinations of hardware and software devices and components that encourage game play, allow a player to play a game on the gaming machine and control payouts and other awards. Software components can include, for example, boot and initialization routines, various game play programs and subroutines, credit and payout routines, image and audio generation programs, various component modules and a random number generator, among others. Hardware devices and peripherals can include, for example, bill validators, coin acceptors, card readers, keypads, buttons, levers, touch screens, coin hoppers, player tracking units and the like.
Some gaming machine devices are considered more critical to the gaming machine operations than others, in particular, devices that control the input and output of money from the gaming machine are generally considered critical devices. The master gaming controller, which controls the features of the game played on the gaming machine including the pay-out of a particular game as well as the gaming devices which output game pay-outs, is one of the most critical gaming devices, if not the most critical device. Specific examples of other critical devices include card readers, bill validators, ticket coupon readers, and coin acceptors which control the input of money into the gaming machine and note stackers, token dispensers, drop boxes and ticket/coupon dispensers which control the output of money from the gaming machine.
Access to a particular gaming machine device depends on the type of device. Input devices such as bill validators, coin acceptors, and card readers or output devices such as coupon dispensers or token dispensers are directly accessible. These devices have at least one access mechanism on the outside of the gaming machine so that the gaming machine may either accept money or indicia of credits from players desiring to play the game or pay-out money to a player playing a game. However, access to the mechanisms controlling the operation of these devices is usually behind one or more doors provided on the gaming machine exterior as part of a gaming machine cabinet. The master gaming controller and the money storage devices such as bill stackers and drop boxes are less accessible. These devices are usually only accessible after opening one or more doors or other barriers in the gaming machine cabinet, which limit access to these critical devices.
The doors which allow access to the critical devices are often secured with keyed locks. For security, when any of these doors are opened, the gaming machine must stop normal game play operation and switch to an attention state. Thus, it is necessary to detect whether a door is open or closed via an electronic means so that the operating software utilized by the master gaming controller can take appropriate action.
Another access mechanism to gaming devices including bill validators, coin/token acceptors, token dispensers, master gaming controllers, and coupon dispensers is through wires which accept and transmit signals which control the operation of the device. Typically, during the operation of the gaming machine, many of the associated gaming devices are controlled in some manner by the master gaming controller located within the gaming machine. The control of a gaming device is enabled by the wires, which connect a gaming device to the master gaming controller. For example, when a player is playing a game and receives a pay-out during the course of a game, the master gaming controller may send out a signal to a coupon dispenser, located in some of other part of the gaming machine away from the master gaming controller, instructing the coupon dispenser to dispense a coupon representing the pay-out. Thus, access may be gained to a gaming device, via the wires connected to the gaming device.
A mode of theft for gaming machines involves accessing the devices which control the input and output of money to the gaming machine through some access mechanism and manipulating the devices in some manner to obtain an illegal pay-out. For example, one type of theft might involve simply taking money from a drop box while a gaming machine is being accessed for maintenance. Another type of theft might involve illegally gaining access to the master gaming controller and reprogramming the master gaming controller to pay-out an illegal jack pot. Another type of theft might involve compromising the wires to a coupon dispenser and sending a signal instructing it to dispense coupons with some monetary value.
One method for preventing theft is installing a security system, which monitors the various access mechanisms of a gaming machine. Typically, security devices of this type monitor access to the various entry ports within the gaming machine as well as the wires to some gaming devices. The security system monitors access to the entry port by sending out signals to sensors able to detect whether access to the entry port has occurred. Usually, the entry port contains a sensor device that forms some type of closed circuit when the entry port is closed and an open circuit when the entry port is open. When an entry port is opened, some information regarding this event is stored by the security monitoring system. For example, the security monitoring system might store information regarding whether a particular entry port was accessed during a particular period of time. This information can be used to determine when a theft has occurred or when tampering with the gaming machine has occurred.
Security monitoring of access to the gaming machine is usually implemented in some manner by the master gaming controller during normal operations of the gaming machine in conjunction with some security monitoring hardware independent of the master gaming controller. The security monitoring by the master gaming controller is implemented while the gaming machine is receiving power from an external power source such as AC power from a power outlet. In the event the gaming machine is receiving no external power such as during a power failure or when the gaming machine is being stored or shipped, security monitoring of the gaming machine is carried out only by the independent security monitoring hardware powered by an internal power source within the gaming machine such as battery.
It is a desire in the gaming industry to provide flexibility in regards to the features and devices that a gaming machine incorporates. For instance, some gaming machines are compatible with top boxes that allow the features and the devices of a base gaming machine to be expanded. The top boxes sits on top of the main cabinet to the gaming machine. Typically, the top box does not include critical devices, such as coin or bill acceptors that are monitored by the security system. Therefore, the security requirements and the security system for the gaming machine are defined by the access points designed into the main cabinet of the gaming machine and the critical devices incorporated into the main cabinet.
For the traditional design described above, one disadvantage is that the critical access points to the gaming machine and its associated security system, such as the main door to the main cabinet, associated locks and monitoring devices for the main door and locks, are fixed. The main door provides a single critical access point to the gaming machine that is fixed. This limits the configurability of the gaming machine because it requires critical devices to be accessible via the main door and within the main cabinet of the gaming machine. Thus, it can be appreciated that what is needed are gaming machine designs that are not limited to a single critical access point.